Eddie Murphy And Martin Lawrence In Talks For Movie Together
Fresh off the release of Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which has now crossed the $1 billion mark as an entire franchise, one of its stars, Martin Lawrence would step out on the red carpet for the premiere of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Lawrence and Eddie Murphy have been supporters of each others work, with the two even starring together in 1999's Life, a classic film. With rumors circulating of Eddie allegedly starring alongside Martin in Bad Boys before Will got on board, their relationship clearly goes way back and makes Martin's appearance on the red carpet, no surprise.
With the Beverly Hills Cop and Bad Boys franchises both releasing their fourth films, many have suggested a 5th should be a crossover movie. When Murphy was told this on the red carpet, instead, he would fire back:
"I got this other idea for something with Martin. I've been developing it for years. Did you ever see a movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World? Well, I got a script, it will be delivered any minute now written by Jez Butterworth and I'm trying to do a remake of that movie."
MARTIN LAWRENCE AND EDDIE MUPRHY IN ‘LIFE’
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World steps into the genre of a crime comedy and tells the story of a group of strangers fighting, race and compete against each other for a suitcase full of stolen cash. In addition to this latest script, Butterworth, which really isn't a made up name, is also known for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Ford v. Ferrari, Spectre, Black Mass and Edge of Tomorrow.
"It's one of my favorite movies of all time and if I do it, if the script turns out right, it's gonna be a cast of all the who's who of comedians. Anybody that was funny over the last 30 years is going to be in this movie"
Now, the original film was released in 1963 and starred an all-star cast of comedians from that era. It looks like Eddie is trying to recreate that energy once again by putting together an all-star ensemble. This isn't the first time Murphy has done this. We all remember 1989's Harlem Nights, where he would cast his comedy inspirations Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor in co-starring roles. That movie would also bring in Della Reese, Jasmine Guy, Arsenio Hall, Thomas Mikal Ford, Miguel A. Nunez Jr, Charlie Murphy and Robin Harris in for smaller roles.
For years, Eddie has also been trying to put together an Oceans 11-type heist comedy together with all of the famous black comedians. Back in 2020, Chris Rock revealed that Murphy pitched a black Oceans 11 with him, Rock, Chappelle, Chris Tucker and a few others about a gang that robs Trump Tower. Instead, that movie became 2011's Tower Heist, starring Murphy, Ben Stiller and a bunch of other white people. During the movie's promotion, Murphy spoke on its origins after watching Oceans 11 for the first time.
"After Oceans 11, I was like, 'Hey, do you know what would be a funny heist movie, if we could do the opposite of that movie. Have me, Dave Chappelle Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and Mike Epps, whoever the funny black guys were around at the time, and have the worst heist imaginable"
That version sounds better than the one we got in 2011. There have also been rumors of a remake of Uptown Saturday Night, with Kevin Hart attached. He's expressed a desire to reunite all of the black comedians for this movie, as well, but it looks like the project may be stuck in Hollywood's development hell. It's rare for black comedians to come together for a single project and the inability to do so has been spoken on. Recently, Rashan Kahn would talk to Comedy Hype and share his feelings on the subject.
